I don’t know about you, but I found myself actually looking forward to “Babylon A.D.” The trailer was pretty slick, the action seemed suitably gritty and I was sold once that little girl blocks the fiery explosion with the powers of her mind. Sadly, it seems that the trailer is going to be the only good thing about the movie, according to the film’s director, Mathieu Kassovitz.

“The scope of the original book was quite amazing,” the director (above, on set with Vin Diesel) told AMCTV.com, but after the studio came in and tinkered with his vision, the final product is “pure violence and stupidity. Parts of the movie are like a bad episode of ’24.'”

He claims that Fox’s lawyers were a source of trouble on-set, telling the site “they made everything difficult from A to Z.” But the director says that was nothing compared to the studio interference in the editing room where they cut the film so severely – down to 93 minutes from either 108 minutes or two hours 43 minutes, depending on who you believe – it led Vin to joke, “Am I even in the movie any more, or am I on the cutting room floor?”

And I, along with Kassovitz, think the timing couldn’t be worse. In a season that has proved audiences will line up for serious issue films despite long running times, “Babylon’s” original incarnation could have been the cherry on top of this summer movie sundae.